Eric Sanchez and Danielle Turner finished in first for only one leg of CBS' The Amazing Race: All-Stars. Luckily for them it was the thirteenth and final leg, as they were the first team to cross the finish line of The Amazing Race's eleventh installment during last night's finale to claim the $1 million prize.

Pretty impressive stuff considering Eric, a 28-year-old waiter from Deerfield Beach, FL, and Danielle, a 23-year-old bartender from Staten Island, NY, were the only All-Stars team to never have competed with one another during a previous season and were instead actually adversaries during The Amazing Race 9.

On Monday, The Amazing Race: All-Stars champions talked to Reality TV World about being the only team Yielded during the competition; why they were paired wth each other instead of their original The Amazing Race 9 partners; how they purposely threw a challenge to see one of their rivals be eliminated; and the current status of their relationship.

Reality TV World: How does it feel to be the winners of The Amazing Race: All-Stars considering you both never raced as teammates before?

Danielle: It's pretty amazing, huh?Eric: I'm not sure what it says, if it makes a good case for either way, you know? I didn't really know what to expect. I'm sure the other teams didn't know what to do with us as a team. They had never seen us race before.

Reality TV World: How did it feel when you crossed the finish line?

Danielle: Shock...Eric: Disbelief...Danielle: ... being so thankful that it's over. We couldn't believe it. We really were shocked. It's an exciting thing. You don't even know how to react honestly. You want to cry -- but then you're like so excited -- and all these things are going through your head. It's crazy.

Reality TV World: How do you think your old Season 9 partners feel about it?

Danielle: I'm sure [her The Amazing Race 9 partner Dani Torchio] was maybe a little jealous, but she never really told me that. When we talked she was very supportive of [Eric and I]. She was happy for me the whole time, so I'm sure she was a little upset but she never told me that.Eric: [His The Amazing Race 9 partner Jeremy Ryan] was happy at that point. But I'm sure... I know he's a little upset because we did a really good job on our season and I know he wanted to be there and I just felt like he deserved it. You know, happy but sad.

Reality TV World: How about the other teams? Did they voice any complaints that a team that had never raced together before got to compete in All-Stars?

Eric: Not to our faces.Danielle: Yeah, not to our faces. I'm sure they had their opinions.Eric: I'm sure some of the teams... I don't think we had any kind of an advantage or anything at all, by any means. I think actually it was probably a disadvantage because the other teams already knew how to work together and Danielle and I had no clue. Obviously there's a lot of friction there so... It just turned out we got a little luckier than some of the other people.

Reality TV World: Eric were you surprised at how Danielle's gossiping paid off for your team during the final challenge?

Eric: You know what? Actually, it was kind of fitting just how it all came down to it. I felt like throughout the first part of the race, I was doing a lot of the work and she was, you know, holding her own but I was making most of the decisions.Danielle: He's lying. It's all me! It's all me!Eric: I did all the driving and all the map work. She was just kind of following behind me and as it came down to it, if she wouldn't have talked so much, then we wouldn't have won. So she gets as much credit as anybody for how we did.

Reality TV World: How long were you at All-Stars finish line before second-place finishers Dustin Seltzer and Kandice Pelletier arrived?

Danielle: About 10 minutes.Eric: Ten minutes or so. It felt like longer. I don't know. Maybe 10 or 15 minutes. Maybe it wasn't that long, but...Danielle: About that long...Eric: ... it felt like a long time.

Reality TV World: Going into the twelfth leg and having been the only All-Stars team to be Yielded, how did you like your chances of winning the entire race? Did you feel like underdogs?

Eric: Well in the last leg we felt... Once we were there, we felt like we could actually win. Up until then, as we were getting pulled off of airplanes, missing flights, getting pulled off of standby, Yielded...Danielle: Yeah, I mean we were definitely underdogs. It was ridiculous. There were times when we thought we weren't going to win, and you know we'd get back into the game. Up until the last second, we didn't know.Eric: I thought it was like every time we made some ground up and caught back up, something else would happen and we'd get hosed.Danielle: Hosed...

Reality TV World: Danielle, why so much trouble with the GPS during the twelfth leg's Roadblock?

Danielle: Did it look like I had some trouble with it?

Reality TV World: Yeah it did.

Danielle (laughing): Oh you mean [when] I had a nervous breakdown? Oh... okay. You know what it was, we knew that was like the last leg before the Top 3 and my biggest fear this whole race was having all the pressure on me... like, [to] do a lot of Roadblocks. So I guess it was like doing it, I'm not really good with directions as it is, and then having all the pressure of knowing if I messed up it was all on me. I think it was both those things going through my head that made me freak out. Directions definitely aren't my thing and apparently even when an arrow's pointing in the direction I still can't follow it. I need to waste money on a Tom-Tom or a GPS system for my car (laughing).

Reality TV World: What was it like seeing your photo at the eleventh leg's Yield, the second time in All-Stars you were Yielded?

Eric: Honestly, that was like the most surprised we were the whole race. The reason being is [All-Stars' fourth-place finishers Ozwald Mendez and Danilo Jimenez] and [All-Stars third-place finishers Charla Baklayan Faddoul and Mirna Hindoyan] had made in agreement with us in Malaysia not to Yield each other. We'd only Yield the blonds [Dustin and Kandice]. It wasn't even our idea... it was the other teams.

Danielle: Yeah.Eric: When that happened, we felt really, really betrayed by Danny and Ozwald because it's hard to make friends on the race and we actually felt like they were our friends.Danielle: And then they back-stabbed us.Eric: They stabbed us in the back. You now they can say they had their reasons, but Charla and Mirna offered them money, they said, "Oh we already have money." They could have given the money back to Dustin and Kandice.Danielle: They could have given the money back.Eric: They could have begged for money, which you're allowed to do, whether you're a guy or girl you can beg. We originally got some money when we were kind of low on funds. It felt really personal. You know, maybe it's strategy but if you shake my hand and say you're not going to do something -- then don't do it -- because I wouldn't do it to you.

Reality TV World: Eric, you commented during the ninth leg that if you and Danielle couldn't win you'd want Ozzy and Danny to win. What was you relationship with Danny and Ozzy like both before and after the eleventh leg's Yield?

Eric: Before the Yield, I counted Danny and Ozwald as friends...Danielle: Absolutely...Eric: I really liked them. I thought they were awesome. I thought they were hilarious... you know, two really cool guys. Afterwards, I mean honestly, it was like they were dead to me. The fact they didn't even say anything -- come up to us at a Pit Stop -- and actually say anything like, "Guys, we're sorry... whatever."Danielle: Yeah, they didn't even like apologize to us.Eric: If it was me, I felt like they should have approached us and said whatever, I mean I would have been pissed and yelled at them probably. But you know what? If you did something wrong then I think it's up to you to man-up and apologize. They chose not to so I chose to not really talk to them anymore.

Reality TV World: Eric, you really seemed to really step-up your game following the Yield. Did you feel it gave you that extra push to win?

Eric: I mean definitely that leg...Danielle: It lit a fire under our butts...Eric: That leg... I mean all it does is -- the Yield -- if it doesn't benefit you, the team doesn't lose, it just makes them mad. I think you see it throughout the history of [The Amazing Race] that the yield is hardly ever used effectively. (laughing) It got out Dani and Danielle [during The Amazing Race's ninth season], but it's rare that it actually works the way that it could. For me, I'm so competitive as it is, it really just pissed me off more. I wanted so badly just to beat Danny and Ozwald at that point.Danielle: Yeah...Eric: Like, I was after them. They were No. 1 on my list.

Reality TV World: When you were marked for elimination following the tenth leg were you confident you'd be able to overcome the penalty?

Danielle: We just figured if we run the leg really fast, at least we'd have the opportunity to come in ahead of a few teams. But you never know what's going to happen. We were lucky Danny and Ozzy got lost, or else we would have been screwed.Eric: You know as it comes down to it, the way it plays out if you look back, we wouldn't have been in any trouble. But you never know. Just at the time, we were really, really stressing it a lot and it was not a situation that you want to be in. It was just a horrible feeling that you know you have to get there and wait. I mean if you watch it, I was just pacing back and forth... I was going nuts.

Reality TV World: How did it feel to learn you were Yielded by Dustin and Kandice that first time during the ninth leg?

Eric: The first time we got Yielded... it wasn't expected at all.Danielle: Rather it was a waste for [Dustin and Kandice] because it was like the beginning of the leg...Eric: Danielle was more upset than I was. I wasn't even mad, I was just like, "Whatever." I was joking around and stuff, but it's part of the race. I know it's there to be used. I'm not like mad at them for using it unless they actively tell me they're not going to use it and they do so.

Reality TV World: What was your relationship with Dustin and Kandice like before and after the Yield?

Eric: The queens I think [out] of most teams kept to themselves a lot. They really were just focused so much on the race. They didn't interact with the other teams. Like, we would talk to a lot of the other teams during downtime, and they would kind of just stick to themselves. They can put books on their heads and walk around with good posture and do stuff like that (laughing with Danielle). I'm not into that kind of thing...

Reality TV World: Eric, is a "dirty pirate hooker" a hooker for pirates or a hooker that's also a pirate?

Eric: A "dirty pirate hooker," it's actually just a quote from Anchorman, the Will Ferrell movie. I was not implying that [Dustin and Kandice] did not wash themselves; got paid to have sex with anybody; were actively looted and plundered on the open seas. It was just a simple saying... I'm not sure what happened with that.

Reality TV World: Danielle why did Eric make you do all the Roadblocks that you commented seemed to be designed for guys?

Danielle (laughing): Because he thinks I'm a guy. My name's Daniel not Danielle... he's not sure. The thing is we really don't know what these Roadblocks are -- we just read like a really quick little sentence and we have to just pick who's going to do it. You don't exactly...Eric: You have to do an equal amount...Danielle: You have to do equal amounts. So I mean we really didn't know what they were going to be. I mean if I was going to be able to finish a Roadblock, believe me I would have done it.Eric: In my defense, for example, in the letter opening task [the fourth leg's Roadblock], she was like, "I don't want to do a Roadblock today." Because we have to like put on our microphones, and like plastic if we knew it was going to be a water task and Danielle didn't want to do it. And when she saw the rats [for the fifth leg's Roadblock], she was like, "I'm not doing the rats." And then the [Macau] tower jump -- we were going to make her do that too -- but she didn't want to... she's afraid of heights. So I mean, she acts like I'm choosing these for her... She's actively declining to do Roadblocks if it's something she doesn't want to do.

Reality TV World: What was the feeling when your flight was delayed in Kilimanjaro and you were stuck in an airport with Joe Baldassare and Bill Bartek ?

Eric (sighs): Honestly? Those were the two people I did not want to be stuck with for like the whole race... honestly. Anybody else would have been better...Danielle: Oh I know. They were so annoying...Eric: We were actually making up ground. We were still behind teams, but we weren't that behind. We were coming back again. So it was just very frustrating for us that we had just made-up some ground from the last leg and then we're back behind again.

Reality TV World: Eric you commented at the beginning of the eighth leg that Danielle wasn't as focused as she should be. Why did you think that and do you think it was affecting your race?

Eric: I think Danielle... she's a girly-girl. She's a strong girly-girl, but she's a New York girl who likes to shop, eat sushi, pamper herself...Danielle (laughing): Sushi?Eric: The thing was, I felt like she was not looking at it like it was a competition. She was just more like, "Oh..."Danielle: I was not!Eric (as Danielle): "I want a cappuccino..."Danielle: One day I got coffee and that's all they talk about. Jesus!Eric: You know what? The thing is I'm eating like 5-day-old sandwiches made with God knows what, she's complaining because she doesn't want to eat an apple because it's not going to fill her up. You know how much you want to choke somebody saying that to you?Danielle: If you loved me, you wouldn't want to choke me. You'd want to just let me get my coffee and that would be the end of it.Eric: That's not the end of it.Danielle (fake crying): If you loved me that's what you would do!

Reality TV World: Eric did you purposely eat your sausage more slowly during the "Eat it Up" Detour task because you knew Joe and Bill -- your "Intersection" partners -- were marked for elimination?

Eric: Well I'm actually pretty good at eating things generally. But Danielle and I talked about it. We wanted the Guidos to go away. When we got to the task and [Charla and Mirna and Dustin and Kandice] were already there [working as a team], we could've eaten faster. At that point, it was more of a strategic move to slow the pace down for ourselves. We knew we had a half-an-hour cushion with the Guidos, we were happy to be with them.Danielle: Yes.Eric: We wanted them gone. So I think we'll pretty much take credit for that leg for helping to get them out. We could have done a better job. If it had been a real situation, and they were ahead of us, we could have done a lot better.

Reality TV World: What was going through your minds when you got pulled off the flight in Johannesburg during the sixth leg?

Danielle: I wanted to kill somebody. It was one of those things that we were kind of having a bad feeling about. Everything was very unorganized in those airports, so it was like made-up lists of who was confirmed, who was not... It was ridiculous.Eric: We knew the flight was overbooked...Danielle: It was a mess.Eric: I had a really bad feeling, I said, "I don't think this is..."Danielle: He had a bad feeling.Eric: ... It was one of those situations where I could see it happening. When it happened, I guess we could have said, "We have tickets. We're staying." But I didn't want to go to jail in a foreign country over an argument. I mean Danielle was more upset. I was really upset. I tried to bribe people. Once we were off, she was freaking out and I was just like, "Okay. Let's figure it out from here. Let's go from here." I mean you can't dwell on things that go wrong. You have to just push forward.

Reality TV World: During the fifth leg, Eric you said you liked making fun of the Guidos. Why was that?

Eric: The Guidos, honestly were just... bless them they've got a loving relationship -- but to me, and my experience with them -- are just very odd individuals. They take everything ultra-serious... Everything is something that's a conspiracy against them. They're just very...Danielle: They're very high-strung.Eric: They're extremely, extremely high-strung. And it's hilarious to me because we weren't even actually trying to pass. I [told our cab driver], "Don't pass! Don't pass!" But he doesn't speak English, so he was like, "Pass! Pass!" and he tried to speed up and I was like, "No! No!" Just watching Bill, his reaction [as we passed him], like his whole body turning... it was hilarious to us.Danielle: It was funny...Eric: I mean as far as the Guidos, we already had a pretty bad relationship because they stood in-front of my car... You know, they just weren't our favorite people.Danielle: No...Eric: If I know I'm under your skin in a situation, I'm going to keep digging at it. It's going to make you make mistakes, and that's what I try to do.

Reality TV World: How did you feel when Rob and Amber Mariano were eliminated at the end of the fourth leg?

Eric: I think all the teams were pretty excited Rob and Amber were eliminated.Danielle: We were pretty shocked.Eric: I mean, we were excited but we were also shocked. They had gotten three first [place finishes] in a row... but all racers know it takes one mistake and you're gone. And that's what [Rob and Amber] did. They chose the wrong Detour [during the fourth leg], and didn't get it done as quickly as they wanted to.

Reality TV World: Danielle why did you decide to work with Amber during the third leg's Roadblock challenge at the fishery?

Danielle (after recalling the situation with Eric): Yeah it was out of circumstance. I mean, it's weird because it's not that much a game where your actually making alliances. It's not like Survivor.Eric: You don't make alliances with Rob and Amber...Danielle: Especially Rob and Amber.

Reality TV World: Eric, when we talked to Joe and Bill as well as Ozwald and Danny, they made some comments that they thought you might be homophobic. I wanted to give you a chance to respond to that.

Eric: Joe and Bill, I don't care that they're gay. To them it's a bigger deal because I guess they have to deal with some stuff in their relationship, like throughout, you know? I don't know what it's like to be a gay male 20 years ago... I have no idea. But the problem is everything you say to them, they take it as me saying it because they're gay. Me calling them freaks has nothing to do with sexuality, it's because they're freaks. They freak-out about everything. Their personality... you can call a man a nervous-Nelly, it just means everything that happens they're just like, "Oh my God what's happening! Oh no! Oh no!" I called them queens. They are queens. They're older males, who are gay...Danielle: They're gay and act like women.Eric: I live in South Florida. I'm a waiter. I have plenty of gay friends. And you know what? They call themselves queens. Danny and Oswald, I treated those guys as well as I could treat anybody. They were my friends. I never said anything about them being gay... I don't care if you're gay. It's a personality thing. Joe and Bill, I didn't like their personalities. It has nothing to do with them being gay, it's a simple as that. If I don't like you, I don't like you. I don't care if you're straight, gay, blue or purple... it doesn't matter to me. I really feel like that they just want a reason, they want something to say, and to me it's actually -- especially for Danny and Ozwald to say it -- because I never treated them poorly. Never. For them to act that way, for me it shows a lot about their character then even Yielding us.

Reality TV World: Were you surprised to be considered All-Stars considering you never raced together in the first place? How did that all unfold?

Eric: You know I think what it is was, I felt like an All-Star contender with Jeremy as a team. I felt like we were probably one of the most dominant teams in The Amazing Race history. And I knew they wouldn't have us as an alpha-male team because they didn't want an alpha-male team on the [All-Stars] race because they didn't want to risk having first places or second places throughout, which we did our first season...Danielle: Right.Eric: So they didn't ask Jeremy and I to do it, they asked Danielle and I to do it because we met on the race and were dating. And so I assume that's why they did it. But you know I felt like I definitely earned my spot, and you know obviously Danielle didn't do as well [during The Amazing Race's ninth season, when she finished sixth with her partner as opposed to Eric finishing second with his], but you know she's a strong girl and you know the creators of the show knew us and knew our relationship and obviously thought we could bring something to the table. And you know how it is... we won.

Reality TV World: Could you briefly describe how you two formed a romantic relationship while competing against one another in Season 9?

Eric: Yeah, ummm....Danielle: He... (laughing) When me and Dani were actually just auditioning [for The Amazing Race 9], we actually saw Jeremy and Eric in California for the audition and we were like, a little bit flirty. So we knew something was going to happen, of course, on the show because we did a lot of flirting. So we went on the show, and they're just like tards, those two boys...Eric: Yeah, we're kind of perverted.Danielle: They're very perverted. But you know what? Me and my friend Danielle have really good senses of humor as well, and we don't take anything like that personally... So we had a really good time with Jeremy and Eric -- even though we didn't last as long as them -- the amount of time we did spend on the race, it was always fun because on our downtime we were flirting and all that kind of stuff. But the truth of the matter is Eric liked me so much he called me as soon as he got home, so...Eric: We started talking on the phone...Danielle: A lot!Eric: ... a lot, and we started taking some trips back and forth. I actually moved up to New York this [past] summer to try-out how it would be. And you know, actually, we did pretty well but it was just too much too soon. We tried to do long-distance and we went on [All-Stars] to kind of see, you know, how our relationship would hold up, if we wanted to look into moving to either place again. Since then, Danielle and I have actually broken up...

Reality TV World: So you're not together any more...

Danielle: Yeah...Eric: It was after the race. I mean we're still cool, we're good friends, it's just as far as a relationship goes, it's not in the cards for either of us.

Reality TV World: Who did you consider your biggest competition and why?

Danielle: We didn't really think of anybody as big competition because...Eric: Danielle was afraid of Rob and Amber. You know, [Uchenna and Joyce Agu] had already won [The Amazing Race 7]... you know, they're great people. I mean every team -- [Teri and Ian Pollack] got second [on The Amazing Race's third season] -- you can't count anybody out. It's so much stuff mixed in, luck, skill, you know all these things. We know that you're running against the course. I mean you hear that a lot. You're not racing against other teams, you're racing against the course. You are. If you run a flawless leg, you're not gonad go home. As long as you get the flight that everyone's getting that's running the leg, you're not going home. It's impossible.

Reality TV World: How are things going in your life currently and how are you going to spend the $1 million?

Danielle: Things are going well. We're still going to be at our jobs for a little while because you don't want to just rely on this money because then it will be gone. So we're definitely just going to go on with our lives and buy ourselves some nice things, go on a few nice vacations... but nothing crazy.Eric: Things are going well for me. I'm in a new relationship... just working, hanging out. Just enjoying this, you know? I'm happy to have my friends and family around for it and I just want to see how the next couple of months go. Maybe try-out some other options with television things if possible. If not, I'll just live under a bridge at the beach with my money in a pillowcase.

Eric Sanchez and Danielle Turner surprised us all by winning The Amazing Race: All-Stars this season. The two were the only hybrid team in the field. They met on season 9, began dating soon after, and were invited to participate on All-Stars together. Good decision. Their race was tumultuous at times, we saw them arguing throughout the season, but they pulled it together and became one of the more formidable teams in the history of The Amazing Race. Eric and Danielle stopped by and talked with us earlier today about their time on the show.

So, you guys won. How does it feel? Was it tough keeping it a secret for these last few months?

Danielle: It really hasn’t been that hard actually, because I had it set in my mind that we’re not telling anybody. We’re not legally allowed to tell anybody and it’s just more exciting in the end when nobody knows.

Eric: You know, it’s actually a lot better keeping it a secret than not telling my family I got second last time and to be sad and disappointed. And when it’s going to be a good result, it’s a lot easier.

I’m a little curious as to how you guys got onto All-stars as a team. Was it your idea or did CBS come to you and say, “Would this work, teaming up for All-Stars?”

Eric: Well, CBS knew we were dating. We had actually gone to California for some prizes I won on my previous season and we had seen some people involved with the race and they knew we were dating. And when the option of All-Stars came up, I know there were some other teams they had thought about, some hybrid teams I guess, and they offered it to us and said they were excited about the possibility of us doing it, and we talked about it and decided it would be a pretty cool idea.

Do you have any idea what you’re going to do with the money yet?

Eric: Nothing actually exciting.

Danielle: Nothing exciting at all.

Eric: As bad as it sounds, like I would love to just say I was just going to go blow it and be crazy and have parties everyday for the next year, but I want to buy a house, I think it’s a good investment right now, buy my own house, and just kind of take it easy and live off of it a little bit and still work and have fun…

Throughout the season, mostly in the earlier episodes, you two were at each other’s throats a few times; was that overblown at all in editing or was it really rough at points?

Danielle: It was definitely overblown, it’s ridiculous. I mean, we did fight and we did argue, but that’s all they showed. We weren’t like that 24/7, that would be ridiculous, you know? But of course, they were just focusing on the little bickering we did, but we weren’t like that all the time, we got along most of the time I would say, but you’re in a very stressful situation, it’s very difficult to get along with anybody at that point with what we were going through…

Eric: I think if they take anybody’s life and film the worst 10 minutes of your day, they’re going to get an opinion of somebody and you’re going to see…they’re just going to make you think that’s how they are and this race especially, they made a lot of the teams look like they were at each other’s throats, and it’s not how it was most of the time.

Was it difficult to watch that from home?

Eric: No, it was kind of humorous actually to watch and remember why we were fighting and getting in that huge argument for cappuccino just seems ridiculous for everybody…

Danielle: It was like, who cares at the end of the day. But you know what, it’s like you’re so nuts, that the littlest of things was an argument.

Specifically, was there anything that was edited out of this season that you wish they would have shown more of?

Danielle: Well, they edited out in last night’s episode, there was a road block that we had to jump off of a cliff and I was so proud of myself but they didn’t show it. What else…

Eric: We got to do the one challenge over there, the rock climbing, and nobody did it. I actually did the rock climbing and I was kind of mad they didn’t show me do that because nobody else could do it, I completed it. So I was kind of bummed they didn’t put that in there.

Who did you feel were your toughest opponents throughout the season?

Eric: You know, honestly, you hear it a lot, but people…honestly for this race, it’s the race course. I mean you can’t really, looking at the team, so much luck is involved and making the right choice, the race is setup so that anybody can win. And having done it once, I already know that, so I didn’t really feel like we had anybody to compete against except ourselves, and if we ran a good leg, if you run a perfect leg, you can’t lose because somebody else is going to mess up.

What would you say was your favorite place to visit on this race or the previous one?

Eric: On the previous one I really liked Greece and Thailand and stuff like that. On this one, I liked Patagonia, I liked down in Argentina, I thought it was really pretty.

Danielle: I liked Argentina actually too…

Eric: You see the glaciers and stuff like that, it was really nice.

I’m just curious about last night, how many minutes did you beat Dustin and Kandice by?

Danielle: We beat Dustin and Kandice by 10 minutes I would say. It felt like a long time, maybe it wasn’t even that long, but it felt like a long time.

Eric: Yeah, I dunno, it felt like we were there…it felt like quite a while. So it could have been anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes or so.

Danielle, you especially seemed pretty stressed out in that cab ride back; was that just the most brutal ride ever?

Danielle: It was so stressful. It’s like the extreme. I mean, after all these weeks and all this stress you go through, and it’s like those final few more seconds that you’re going to be at the finish. You’re like, please let this be over and let us win. I mean, you’re that close, it’s the worse feeling ever, it really is.

Anything coming up in your personal lives that you’d like to discuss at all?

Danielle: I mean, there’s nothing set in stone right now, but we’re both going to try to do things, pursue things that we enjoy and see what happens. Nothing's set yet, but we’ll see, you never know.

After 28 days and five continents, Eric Sanchez and Danielle Turner, the only pair of contestants who had not previously teamed up on a prior edition of the globe-trotting reality show, were crowned the $1 million winners of the 11th, all-star season.

"I'm so happy to be here," Turner, a 23-year-old bartender, said after crossing the finish line. "I'm shaking. I can't believe this is real right now…I got into the best shape being in this race with Eric because he kicked my butt, the race kicked my butt."

Sanchez, a 28-year-old waiter whom Turner met and began dating after competing on opposing teams—neither of which won—for the ninth season of the series, expressed similar joy at being the first to cross the finish line in San Francisco.

"I'm so happy to be here with Danielle," he said. "From what I went through last time—coming in second, so close—I mean, to be in first is just unbelievable."

The duo beat out Dustin Seltzer and Kandice Pelletier, the "beauty queens" from season 10 who placed second, and season-6 cousins Charla Baklayan Faddoul and Mirna Hindoyan, who came in third. The latter teams were trying to become the first all-female duos to win the race.

The 12th and final leg of the 45,000 mile journey saw the pairs travel from Guam to Tokyo to Hawaii and finally to San Francisco.

All three teams were on relatively equal footing upon arriving at San Francisco's Old Mint. There, the three teams were forced to answer a series of four questions testing how well they knew each other and the rest of the 11 teams that competed in The Amazing Race: All-Stars. Only after the partners matched answers to the questions—including which team was the least trustworthy, most overrated, the most likely to keep in touch and had the best sense of humor—were the duos able to move forward.

Sanchez and Turner managed to match all the answers, giving them the edge they needed to be the first to arrive at the finish line, the city's botanical gardens, where host Phil Keoghan and the previously ousted eight teams were waiting to greet the winners.

"I definitely knew I could do anything I want to do, that's what the race taught me," Turner said.

Sanchez, meanwhile, said he saw his million-dollar relationship "progressing" as a result of their win and that he was "really proud" of his girlfriend.

However, there may be some competition on the horizon. After winning the race, both team members were allowed to phone family members—and Sanchez's first call was to his former partner, Jeremy Ryan, who promised Sanchez a "spanking" upon his return home.

CBS has already committed to another season of the series, which averaged about 10 million viewers this cycle and has won four straight Emmys for Best Reality Competition.

If you watched the the conclusion to the Amazing Race Sunday night, you probably noticed it had a local look to it. That's because the three final teams touched down on Oahu for their second to last leg of the reality adventure.

The teams raced to Kamaka air hanger, boarded a chopper to Lanai and had to perform tasks at both Kaumalapau Harbor and Shipwreck beach. Once those tasks were finished, the teams boarded a plane at Honolulu airport bound for San Francisco.

The winners of the race and the million dollars are dating couple Eric and Danielle.

Eric and Danielle on FUSE's The SauceEric and Danielle on FOX REALITY REMX

This morning after finishini mowing the lawn I go to see:

Eric and Danielle on REGIS and KELLY LIVE

It was all highly repetitive. Interviewers ask them the same stupid questions, so they get the same carefully rehearsed answers each and every time. Although they are engaging individuals, Eric and Danielle appear to be the epitome of BORING when you hear the same thing for the second, third and fourth time.

I think the most repetetive winner interview was Tyler from James and Tyler of TAR10. Every time he was asked what he wanted to do with the money he said "I've never had a piece of land to call my own!"

“For the People That Don't Like Us, I'm Glad We Ruined Your Season” – An Interview with The Amazing Race: All-Stars’ Winners, Eric & Danielle by Teeuwynn Woodruff -- 05/08/2007

Eric & Danielle were the only team on All-Stars who never actually raced together before – yet they won it all! What do Eric & Danielle say about what it was like to race together? Are they still a couple? How do they feel about racing with each other instead of their original partners? And what does Eric have to say about all those nasty things he said about some of his fellow racers?

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Eric & Danielle, and thank you for talking to RealityNewsOnline today!

Eric & Danielle: Hello!

Eric: Thank you for talking to us.

RNO: First of all, congratulations on your big win!

Danielle: Thank you!

RNO: Did you guys expect to win?

Eric: No!

Danielle: No. Definitely not. The only time I think we had any inkling that we were going to win was just probably the last leg, when we were in San Francisco, we had a chance. Any other leg before that, we kept getting shot down. There was no way we thought we were even going to make it to the final three.

Eric: Going into the race, I really felt like we had a good chance against the other teams. I felt like we had a good shot. And then, after we started racing, we did pretty well the first couple of legs. But, after we got yanked off the plane [in South Africa], it was downhill and it was just survival.

RNO: But you made it through! What are your plans for the money?

Eric: Danielle's going to give me her share because she loves me so much.

Danielle: Yeah. I love him so much.

RNO: That sounds like a pretty good deal for you, Eric.

Eric: No. Danielle's just going to invest. Go ahead, you can talk.

Danielle: Yeah, I'm going to invest my money. I'll of course spend a little on myself, but I'm not going to go crazy with it. I definitely want to set it up for myself, for later on, when I want to buy a house. I want to do things the right way.

Eric: I'm going to pay my taxes.

RNO: Richard Hatch would be proud.

Eric: Exactly. I'm going to take it right out and put it in the bank and get some interest on it while waiting for tax time. I'm going to buy a house in South Florida and take care of some family. Just enjoy life and save some money up so I can be a little more sound. I don't want to blow through it. I want to, you know, just keep it as I need it.

RNO: Speaking of love, what is the status of your relationship these days?

Eric: Speaking of love...

Danielle: Nonexistent! We're not together any more.

Eric: We are no longer dating. Still cool, though. We still talk. Everything's fine, it's just we felt like we were going down anyways, before we started racing. The race just pushed it along a little quicker. It was a long-distance relationship. She's in New York, I'm in Florida. Neither of us was going to move. I lived in New York part of the Summer and I didn't really like it.

RNO: You felt that running the race helped you come to that decision?

Eric: Yeah, I did. I mean... we were trying to see what we wanted to do. We wanted to look into it and on the race we got along pretty well, but there was a lot of stuff that both of us didn't like about each other. That just kind of helped speed it up a bit. It's better this way.

RNO: Do you think your relationship was fairly portrayed on screen?

Danielle: No, definitely not. They show a lot of bickering and fighting and crying and mad faces. That's really not even us. It kind of sucks because we actually do joke around a lot and laugh a lot. So the fact that they didn't show any of that is annoying because now everyone thinks we're this horrible, bickering couple. Everyone thinks Eric's a jerk. I have to explain that he's not. Everybody at my job, everyone says, “Oh, that guy's a jerk!” But he's really not. He really isn't. I'm not as big of a baby as they made me look either.

Eric: No, you're only --

Danielle: And I'm not as annoying as they made me look either. I'm really not. I mean we had a few bickering fights that were stupid and that was it.

Eric: We actually got along pretty well. We had a lot of fun when we were doing stuff – stressful times. We were also in a very stressful situation, being behind everybody.

Danielle: We're both very competitive. We're not there to fool around and to not win this. We didn't want to go to sequester, we wanted to finish it. The fact that we just kept getting pushed down was making us angry. Who do you take it out on? Of course, your teammate because, like when you're married, you take it out on your wife or your husband. It's just natural. That's what we did. We took our frustrations out on each other.

RNO: You're the only All-Stars team that wasn't a team on a prior race. How did you guys come to be on All-Stars?

Eric: What happened was, we actually started dating after the show, and then on a trip to California we saw some production people and inquired about The Amazing Race and if they'd use us as a couple. They said they didn't know if we're having anything happening with All-Stars. We forgot about it, actually. Then they called us a couple of months later and they said they were doing All-Stars and wanted us as a team. I don't know if we planted the seed or not, but it was kind of the right time for everything to be happening.

RNO: That must have been exciting. Were you surprised?

Eric: Yeah, we were really surprised. We actually even discussed if we wanted to do it. That sounds, I guess, probably weird to the fans, but most of the racers... It's so much to do. It's a huge sacrifice you make. You can't talk to anyone for a month. It's extremely stressful. It's a lot of fun, but there's a lot to it you don't see. You see the exciting stuff on TV, the climbing and jumping off and all the cool places you go. But you don't see the 18-hour flights and all the fighting, day-long stays at airports...

RNO: It looks like it's a very grinding, tiring experience.

Eric: I think this one, if you ask all the racers, this was probably more stressful than their first.

RNO: What made it more stressful?

Eric: The travel aspect. The shortage of flights... My first race, even if you missed the first flight, you'd get on the second flight. On this race, you'd miss the first flight, the second flight, the third flight, and catch the fourth flight. You're so spread out and you might not even catch the fourth flight!

Danielle: Like us – when we caught the fourth we were yanked off of it!

RNO: You were stuck in the airport [in Africa] for days.

Eric: The better part of our trip was spent in airports.

Danielle: I hate airports now.

Eric: I'm sticking to Greyhound.

RNO: How did you prepare for All-Stars?

Eric: Well, we didn't really have a strategy. I told Danielle to learn how to drive a stick shift and learn how to read a map and get on a treadmill. Guess which one of those she did? None.

RNO: Is that true, Danielle?

Danielle: No, I did work out, I work out all the time anyway.

Eric: Did you run on a treadmill all the time?

Danielle: No, I did not run. I'm not a runner.

Eric: Danielle worked out making her body look good, but not on any cardio. Danielle got her hair done, got a manicure – which is really necessary while on the race, nice fingernails. It really helps when you're climbing rock walls and picking up flounder, having your nails looking their best.

I mean, as far as just for me, I already knew what to do because I had done it once and gotten far. I didn't have to do any studying. I mean, I looked at flags...

RNO: After your previous experience losing to the Hippies?

Eric: I tried to find out things about certain countries, look at capitols of countries, and things that it may help to know. I'm already active and work out a lot. I play a lot of volleyball, so my cardio's good. Nothing else.

RNO: Danielle, what was most different about running this race with Eric, instead of your original partner, Dani?

Danielle: Probably the main difference is that he treated me like he was a drill sergeant or something. He was like, out-of-control nuts. Dani just, you know, laughed the whole race, which is probably why we got out the fifth episode and won this one.

Eric laughs.

Danielle: It was just a lot more difficult and I did a lot more bickering with him. It was just a lot less stressful last year. That was the main difference. I mean, me and Danielle didn't take it seriously at all. I realize that now after this season where I made it to the end, all the things you have to do to book flights and stuff. Me and Danielle didn't do half of that. So, it's amazing how we made it to the fifth episode. I don't even know who was in charge of those things, because I don't feel like either one of us was in charge of anything in those airports. I see what everyone does now and it's, like, amazing to me.

RNO: What's Dani doing now?

Danielle: She's engaged, actually. She's working in the city, like a nine-to-five job.

RNO: When you were on the plane from Tokyo to Hawaii, where did you think Charla & Mirna were when they didn't show up for the flight?

Eric: We had no idea!

Danielle: And we still don't.

Eric: I know they found something somehow, but they get the most amazing breaks with flights, and they're really smart. I don't know if they researched something I can't find, or if they have a travel agent on hold...

Danielle: We looked on the internet --

Eric: Yeah, we looked on the internet. We looked at the same internet, looked at the same stuff as everybody, talked to everybody. Nobody told us about that flight. I guess they just got lucky and looked at one of the boards and it showed that there was a flight coming in.

RNO: How did you manage to do so much better than the other teams on the final challenge at the mint? You were the only ones to complete it.

Eric: Danielle talks a lot.

Danielle: I talk a lot and I gossip a lot. All of those questions just came very easily to us. I would have gotten it on the first try if I was thinking more toward the end of the race. I was thinking of the beginning of the race, so I went through the list, because our first enemies who we thought were untrustworthy, were the Guidos. So, I was thinking Guidos right away. Then I thought about the girls – we can't trust the girls. And then I thought, “I know who he doesn't like now – it's Danny & Ozzy,” because of Yielding us. That's how I was thinking. If I was thinking just right that minute, I would have gotten it on the first try.

RNO: So it sounds like you’re saying that Danielle's propensity for talking about people is actually what got you guys the million dollars at the end.

Danielle: Yep! It is!

RNO: Eric, do you really feel other teams are being wrong or immoral by Yielding you?

Eric: No, not at all. I'm glad you asked. I actually wasn't upset with the Blondes doing the Yield. It's part of the game. I joke around and call them names, but that's not serious. That's more just being silly. I don't know why they Yielded us because I didn't think there was that big a reason to, but you never know what's going through someone else's head. As far as Danny & Oswald, the reason I was so upset was because they made a pact with us, off camera, and Charla & Mirna, that we would not Yield each other. It was their idea and we shook hands on it. We valued them as friends up until that point. We got along with them really well. As much as you can have a friend on the race, we felt they were our friends.

RNO: So, what did you feel when you saw on TV that Dustin & Kandice asked them to Yield you?

Eric: I still fault Danny & Oswald because it was their choice. They sold their Yield. It was their choice to sell it. They could have... if I was them, I don't know, even though it's just as sneaky, I would have taken Dustin & Kandice's money and Yielded them anyway. They could have – Charla & Mirna asked if they wanted money and they would have given it to them. They could have said, “Okay, blondes, the deal's off.” They could have begged for money – which you can do. It is allowed. It's not the most fun thing to do, but I'd much rather beg than break my word to one of my friends. To sell my friendship for $45... I'd rather beg.

RNO: Have you forgiven them?

Eric: You know what, I thought I had. I talked to them and I said, “You know what? I want to understand. Listen, I don't want to be mad at you guys about this whatever.” Then, I thought everything was cool, but then in interviews they're still talking a lot of trash about us – me personally. I just think it shows a lot about their character. I think they're very bitter.

They think that we did something wrong to them, when I feel like they did something wrong to us. If they wanted to apologize, they should have done so. I don't like the way they've acted since. I think it's just – they talk about how they want to make sure they keep their moral fiber intact and not do this or that, but I think they just, you know, are hypocrites who went against everything they said.

RNO: What was different about having Danielle as a partner instead of Jeremy?

Eric: Honestly, it was completely different. I mean, doing the race with one of your best friends is so stress-free. Especially when he's competitive like I am, and a good athlete. Jeremy and I had a great time. It was just fun. With the race now, I had to deal with, you know, girl problems and, you know, sensitivity issues. If I yelled at Jeremy to pick up a fish, he wouldn't cry and be mad at me. It's just a different dynamic. She did a great job. I have to watch what I say to her, be careful about her feelings, you know. It's having a relationship for everyone to see, but you have to really monitor what you do.

RNO: And What was with Jeremy in that phone call at the end of the race?

Eric: Jeremy – he's nuts. I don't even know what he was doing. I saw that and... First of all, he just woke up from a nap. He's wearing this amazing “Life is Fun” tee shirt he got at Goodwill. He just confuses me. I'm not sure what he was doing, but I have to actually watch the show again because I couldn't hear everything he was saying. I don't even remember exactly what he said. Jeremy – that's just how he is and we all have fun. I'm not sure what exactly he was doing.

RNO: So, Eric, who's a better race partner – Danielle or Jeremy?

Eric: Um....

Danielle: He's afraid to answer!

Eric: I'm sorry Danielle, but Jeremy's the best partner. Even though we won!

Danielle: We've had arguments about that comment.

Eric: Even though we won, I would have rather done the race with Jeremy.

RNO: Danielle, if you ran the race again, would you rather run it with Eric or Dani?

Danielle: I don't want to race it with anyone. I never want to do it again!

RNO: Eric, do you feel like you gave Danielle too hard a time?

Eric: I look back and I see some things I said that were maybe a little harsh, but at the same time, we were competing. She needed to be pushed. I don't think I was trying to be mean to her, but I know – and Danielle will tell you too – that we wouldn't be here, we wouldn't have won, if I didn't push her. She's a girl. She's a girly-girl. She's looking at her nails right now! I'm not even kidding, she's playing with her manicure. It is what it is and she needed to be pushed. I knew what it takes to win The Amazing Race because I got so close. Obviously, I did something right because I got second the first time and first the next. Obviously, I can't be that crazy.

RNO: Danielle, do you agree with what Eric said?

Danielle: I definitely need to be pushed a little bit. There are just ways of going about it. He knows. I already told him on the race... The only reason he got me so angry was because I knew that he was going to watch it and be mad at himself for not enjoying it more. I know Eric, how his personality really is, like so intense about it that he wasn't even enjoying himself. So, he was taking a lot of his intensity out on me. It was just – he was ruining my fun of the race. That’s all that came out at the end of the day, that I was angry about. He even admitted it himself, watching it, that he wishes I would have enjoyed it a little bit more. It's okay that he pushed me, whatever. But there's a way of going about things and he had no... class, when it came to pushing me a certain way.

Eric: What? Are you rambling now?

Danielle: I'm falling asleep! I sound like you! You speak in a monotone voice, you know that?

RNO: What was the hardest moment on the race for you guys?

Eric: Probably getting yanked off the airplane.

Danielle: Yeah. That was probably the worst.

Eric: I mean, I was begging people, I was trying to offer them money. I was like – $50, $100! And this is, you know, in Africa. I mean everyone flying on planes aren't generally poor, but $100 U.S. in South Africa is a pretty decent amount of money.

RNO: Did you think that might be the end of the race for you, when you got taken off of the plane?

Eric: Yeah, we really did.

Danielle: We really did think that.

Eric: And there was actually an old guy, when I was trying to see if anyone would take the money, who was just like, “get off the plane!” I really wanted to just grab him and choke him to death. We only needed one person to get off of the plane. I was hoping that he would have a heart attack. But he didn't.

RNO: Eric, I've heard you've called some other teams up and apologized to them, in advance, for various things you said about them on the race. Is that true:

Eric: I talked to Joe & Bill. I apologized in advance, but after I heard some of the stuff – I wanted just to make sure that... I called them Queens, but I wanted them to know that I wasn't being derogatory toward them based on their sexuality. What I said was based on their personalities and interactions with me, not on anything else.

I guess the only person I really felt bad about was Ian. I said he was loud. I have nothing but respect for Teri & Ian. They're class act people all the way. I really felt bad because you just talk sometimes and you forget that cameras are there. I was just feeling that Ian was loud – which he was being that day – but I didn't want people to think that's what I felt about him. When it comes down to it, it's a race. It's not really indicative of everyone's personalities. I didn't want people to think that's how I felt about them.

Some people hold grudges. Like Joe & Bill still hold a grudge, I think. Danny & Oswald hold a grudge against me. If they choose to, that's fine. But if somebody calls me an a-hole, you know what? If I was being one, then I was. I can take it. Call me whatever you want, I'm not going to hate you for it. It is what it is. I wanted to make sure that people know that, even though I may have said something, it's not necessarily what I think now.

RNO: Do you stay in touch with any teams from either your first season or All-Stars?

Eric: Yes, actually. I talk to Uchenna & Joyce a lot. I talk to Kandice. So does Danielle. We talk on the internet to a lot of people. Teri & Ian live pretty close to me and I'm going to go fishing with them. From my last season, I'm going to Joseph & Monica's wedding in the end of July. I talk to BJ & Tyler. I've talked to Dave & Lori in Kansas. We talk to a lot of teams – most of them.

RNO: Anything else you'd like to tell us about your experiences on The Amazing Race?

Danielle: It was grueling and hard, but I'm glad I did it – and even more happy that I won. It's definitely a lot worse and a lot harder than people think it is because they only see a little bit of it. It's a really, really hard thing to do.

Eric: I just want to say that, for our fans, we really appreciate the people who like us and don't talk trash. And for the people that don't like us, really I'm glad we ruined your season. You want to say bad things, nothing makes me happier than ruining the haters' season.

RNO: Well, thank you for talking to me. You two ran a really good race.

LMAO, honestly I love danielle after her "they're gay and they act like women" comment. I mean, I know what she means by that and I found it hilarious. I'm glad that's the attitude Eric chose to have. I read that interview (and posted the link above ^^^ ) and kept laughing at the sense of humour these two have.

Like he said: he seems to get along fine with the BQs, him and Danielle even keep in touch with Kandice, but D/O (still love them) are just bitter towards them for the whole thing IMO.